I HATE eating low carb

[holdoll]

I need to keep it lower fat too. I don't mind turkey bacon, but with the nitrates I try not to eat too much.

 

I also don't like pork!

 

You may be right though, eat it enough and my tastes will change.

 

Dawn

 

I found all natural Jenni-O turkey bacon at Costco. No nitrites or nitrates.

[jplain]

I looked at the link on Fatty Liver Reversal and I have a question. I've just been diagnosed with Fatty Liver. I'm trying to lose weight and am having much the same trouble as Dawn. I've been taking Omega 3-6-9 at fairly high doses. According to your link, the Omega 6 I'm taking is bad? Should I switch to only Omega 3's?

Jean, I'd finish off what you've got and then switch to an omega-3 only supplement. You might want to reconsider your dose as well. I'm not convinced that omega-3s are healthful at doses higher than 1-2 grams per day.

 

Unless your diet is unusual even by low carb standards, the amount of omega-6 in your supplement is insignificant compared to the other omega-6s in your diet. For that reason, the higher priority should be to reduce dietary omega-6. Omega-6's are found in nuts, nut butters, and refined vegetable oils, except coconut and palm oil. They're also higher in factory farmed animals, particularly the non-ruminants (poultry, pork).

 

If I was prioritizing how to tackle omega-6 reduction, I'd rank the possibilities this way: (1) reduce refined vegetable oil intake to the lowest reasonable amount, (2) reduce nuts, (3) shift dietary emphasis to ruminant meat (beef, bison, lamb) and/or seek out naturally-raised poultry and pork.

 

Here's a blog post that might be of interest: N-3 (omega-3) supplementation recommendations. A key to some of the strange abbreviations can be found in this post, which is probably worth reading first anyway. The general recommendations of that blog author can be found here, and the underlying nutritional philosophy here.

[Debbie in OR]

In addition to jplain's book recs, I would also include Life Without Bread by Christian Allan.

 

I have been thin my whole life and was in that same "calories in/calories out" interpretation of weight management but after running for years (trying to get rid of the 5-7 pounds of post-pregnancy weight but it's so hard now that I'm over 45:glare:) and noticing that my weight never changed no matter what I did, I started to question this for me.

 

In addition, my mom was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes last summer and since I had gestational diabetes with my first pregnancy, I decided to start eating like a diabetic so that I WOULDN'T become diabetic.

 

In researching, I came across Life Without Bread and Why We Get Fat (Taubes) and it changed EVERYTHING. Whoa. And it's not just about weight management...it's about addressing a whole host of other issues that a carb-heavy lifestyle creates.

 

Life Without Bread is pretty user friendly, although there are some medical-heavy chapters. And in the back, there is a very reasonable plan to follow to help you begin reducing the amount of carbs you consume.

 

I am transitioning to a very low-carb lifestyle so in the meantime, I bake with almond and coconut flours and use birch (xylitol) sugar, which make it so much easier to travel that road :tongue_smilie:.

[DawnM]

I didn't realize it didn't have nitrates in it, we do have some here.

 

I also got several items (salmon, tilapia, even some steak, which I normally don't buy, but it sounded good) at Costco last night.

 

So far I have lost 2-3 pounds in the last week. After 3 weeks of carefully counting points on WW and making sure not to overeat, weighing, measuring, etc....I can clearly see it is a big difference for me....and my guess is that the calorie count isn't too different.

 

Dawn

 

I found all natural Jenni-O turkey bacon at Costco. No nitrites or nitrates.

[jplain]

I found all natural Jenni-O turkey bacon at Costco. No nitrites or nitrates.

Check the label. If it has celery powder or celery extract or celery anything in it, it contains nitrates that convert into nitrites during processing. Celery powder curing is no different from regular nitrate/nitrate curing, other than the source of the nitrate/nitrite. This is a food labeling issue that really bugs me. Salt cured bacon, on the other hand, is genuinely a different product.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Search Amazon for "The Queen of Fats." It's a great book on omega-3s, and by extension, omega-3s. It should help you make that decision. My understanding is you oughtn't be taking omega 6s because they are "bully boys." To put it simply, it seems the omega-3s and -6s compete for the same jobs. We need some -6's, but not too many because most of those jobs are done better by the -3s, they're just a bit on the puny side so increasing your -3s doesn't do much good unless you also reduce your -6 intake. You know how bullies are. In a mob, they're obnoxious, but get them alone, and they'll usually behave themselves. It's kinda like that.

 

Biochem for dummies style explanation is not because I think you're a dummy, but because I'm a dummy at biochem. Hopefully someone who isn't will comment, and let me know if that's the right idea. They didn't really talk much about the omega-9s in the book so I don't know anything about them. It was published in 2006 which is pretty up to date for nutritional info; most of what we know is info about 50 years old.

 

Rosie

 

Jean, I'd finish off what you've got and then switch to an omega-3 only supplement. You might want to reconsider your dose as well. I'm not convinced that omega-3s are healthful at doses higher than 1-2 grams per day.

 

Unless your diet is unusual even by low carb standards, the amount of omega-6 in your supplement is insignificant compared to the other omega-6s in your diet. For that reason, the higher priority should be to reduce dietary omega-6. Omega-6's are found in nuts, nut butters, and refined vegetable oils, except coconut and palm oil. They're also higher in factory farmed animals, particularly the non-ruminants (poultry, pork).

 

If I was prioritizing how to tackle omega-6 reduction, I'd rank the possibilities this way: (1) reduce refined vegetable oil intake to the lowest reasonable amount, (2) reduce nuts, (3) shift dietary emphasis to ruminant meat (beef, bison, lamb) and/or seek out naturally-raised poultry and pork.

 

Here's a blog post that might be of interest: N-3 (omega-3) supplementation recommendations. A key to some of the strange abbreviations can be found in this post, which is probably worth reading first anyway. The general recommendations of that blog author can be found here, and the underlying nutritional philosophy here.

 

Thank you to both of you. I'm doing the Omegas because of chronic pain and inflammation but of course I don't want to be contributing to the fatty liver.

[jplain]

Thank you to both of you. I'm doing the Omegas because of chronic pain and inflammation but of course I don't want to be contributing to the fatty liver.

I'm taking omega-3s for the same reason. Actually, decreasing your dietary omega-6 intake may also help with pain and inflammation.

 

Here's the theory: the biochemical pathways referred to as the eicosanoid pathways are an important part of the body's inflammatory response. Omega-3 fatty acids feed into the synthesis of eicosanoid molecules that are generally anti-inflammatory in nature, while omega-6s feed into the part of the pathway that synthesizes the more pro-inflammatory eicosanoids. We do need both for a healthy and balanced inflammatory response. However, if you know you're dealing with excess inflammation, decreasing the raw materials needed for the pro-inflammatory branch of the pathway may help cool things down a little. Given that the Standard American Diet supplies vast quantities of omega-6s and relatively small amounts of omega-3s, this may be an area in which you really can make a big difference by changing your diet.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I'm taking omega-3s for the same reason. Actually, decreasing your dietary omega-6 intake may also help with pain and inflammation.

 

Here's the theory: the biochemical pathways referred to as the eicosanoid pathways are an important part of the body's inflammatory response. Omega-3 fatty acids feed into the synthesis of eicosanoid molecules that are generally anti-inflammatory in nature, while omega-6s feed into the part of the pathway that synthesizes the more pro-inflammatory eicosanoids. We do need both for a healthy and balanced inflammatory response. However, if you know you're dealing with excess inflammation, decreasing the raw materials needed for the pro-inflammatory branch of the pathway may help cool things down a little. Given that the Standard American Diet supplies vast quantities of omega-6s and relatively small amounts of omega-3s, this may be an area in which you really can make a big difference by changing your diet.

 

Thank you so much. I'm a bit frustrated because my Dr. was so vague - "Omegas might help" without any specific guidance into what kind or how much. I've been trying to figure it out on my own but had not come across the distinctions between the Omegas before.

[Rosie_0801]

Thank you to both of you. I'm doing the Omegas because of chronic pain and inflammation but of course I don't want to be contributing to the fatty liver.

 

Funny you mention inflammation. In that book I mentioned, it talked about those margarines that lower your cholesterol. Those same thingis that lower the cholesterol, which isn't a great indicator of heart disease anyway, actually contribute to heart disease by boosting blood pressure and causing inflammation. Spiffy, huh :glare:

 

Rosie